After a long break I am getting back to Codex Manesse miniatures, with a new theme “Beyound Court and Castle”. We will explore knightly activities, related with everyday life, obligations and pasttimes.
For the first set meet Herr Heinrich Hetzbold von Wissense with his retinue, following a call of the hunt. Not just any hunt, but a Great Hunt (lat. Venatio Magna). That is a hunt for big game. What prey was treated as a big game varied depending on time and place, but in general in medieval Europe big game included animals such as Red Deer, European Bison, Auroch, Bear, Boar, Lynx, Moose, Wild Horse and occasionally even Roe and Beaver (sic.). In fact it was not the size of the animal that was a deciding factor but rather scarcity and prestige of the trophy,
Quite early in middle ages a hunt for big game became subject of royal monopoly (lat. regale), and privilege awarded to high lords and bishops. Dedicated officials and servants were appointed to keep track of quantity, of big game in royal forests, managing the game populations and protecting from poachers. Breaking of this monopoly could be punished by death, so forget about camping in the bushes, waiting for deer to show up at the tip of your arrows.
Indeed the Great hunt was rarely a romanticized a solitary experience of just “hunter and its prey” but rather a big, celebrated social and political event. An occassion to invite guests and reinforce alliances, discuss politics, arrange marriages etc. The hunt itself involved not just noble hunters themselves, usually hunting from horseback, but also a number of servants, and often peasants form local villages going in battue with rattles and horns to scare the game from its hiding.
The most treasured and invaluable hunting “tools” of the Great Hunt were not weapons but dogs, bred and cared for often by specialized class of servants. These dogs were divided not necessarily by breed but rather by function. There were separate dogs for tracking and chasing the game, herding the frightened animal towards the hunters, other hounds were trained to engage, and subdue the prey, or at least bleed and weaken it enough, so the hunter could catch up and finish the job with spear, sword or dagger. Separate kinds of dogs were bred for small game. But we will look at small hunt on another time.
MINILab Models 